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U.S.-Israel Cooperation

The Iron Dome short-range rocket and missile defense system intercepted 90 percent of missile attacks on Israeli urban centers during the latest bombardment from Gaza. The system intercepted 27 rockets fired from Gaza over the weekend, raising the interception rate from 75 percent last year to over 90 percent.

A flurry of recent military cooperation between the United States and Israel includes a company of U.S. Marines spending a month at two of Israel's premier training facilities, upcoming exercises involving the largest U.S. Army ground force units ever to visit Israel, and the annual but bigger-than-ever Juniper Cobra joint missile defense exercise. Taken together, there is no doubt that the Pentagon is fully embracing the range of impressive force enhancement options for the U.S. military that Israel offers.

Recent test successes for Israel's Iron Dome defense system may have helped eliminate concerns about system’s ability to respond to short-range rocket threats, IDF leadership has indicated that ground operations would be still be necessary in the face of a large barrage of rockets. At the same time, an article by JINSA Research Associate Jacob Levkowicz reports, analysts continue to claim that the system's high cost may well prevent it from ever entering serial production.

In a March 17, 2010 interview on "Secure Freedom Radio", a weekly news radio show hosted by Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, Shoshana Bryen, Senior director for Security Policy at JINSA, discusses the Obama Admin.'s handling of Middle East relations.